Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature

385 Pages·2008·11.98 MB·English

by  John Mullan

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anonymity
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ANONYMITY
A Secret History of English Literature
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john mullan
Princeton University Press
Princeton and Oxford
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Published in the United States
by Princeton University Press
41 William Street
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
First published in 
by Faber and Faber Limited
 Queen Square London wc1n 3au
All rights reserved
© John Mullan, 
The right of John Mullan to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with Section  of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the Publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number 2008927833
isbn ––691–13941–8
Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed on acid-free paper.
press.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
         
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For Harriet
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contents
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Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 
 Mischief 
 Modesty 
 Women being men 
 Men being women 
 Danger 
 Reviewing 
 Mockery and devilry 
 Confession 
 Epilogue 
Notes 
Bibliography 
Index 
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acknowledgements
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Over the years, I have pestered many friends, and most of my
colleagues in the English Department at University College
London, for information about anonymous and pseudonymous
publications. They may recognize shards of their own know-
ledge in this book. For particular advice I would like to thank
Rosemary Ashton, Mary Aylmer, Juliet Barker, Matthew Bevis,
Paul Davis, Lucy Dallas, Greg Dart, Alan Downie, John Dugdale,
Lindsay Duguid, Giles Foden, Mark Ford, Mark Fox, Warwick
Gould, Helen Hackett, Bruce Hindmarsh, Iona Italia, Danny
Karlin, Ian Katz, Nigel Leask, Grevel Lindop, Aasiya Lodhi, Roger
Lonsdale, Lucasta Miller, Charlotte Mitchell, Ruth Morse, John
Morton, David Nokes, James Raven, Hermann J. Real, John
Richetti, Isabel Rivers, Valerie Rumbold, Max Saunders, Peter
Shillingsburg, John Sutherland, Keith Walker, Francis Wheen,
Henry Woudhuysen, and Steve Zwicker.
I have made much use of contemporary reviews, and found
the periodical holdings of the Senate House Library invaluable. I
am grateful to its librarians, and also to the British Library, and
the Library of University College London.
A Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship in – gave me
the time to turn the examples and stories that I had been gather-
ing over the years into a book. I gratefully acknowledge the
Trust’s support.
Finally, I am indebted to Julian Loose at Faber and Faber, first
for his patience and then for his pointed advice.
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